The end of a busy day

Today I lounged this morning, and then spent the afternoon running all over the place. My mom brought Tessa back from her ever-so-fun overnight adventure (it's hard to say who had more fun - Tessa or the grandparents - but there were smiles all around!) and treated us to lunch at Lee's, and then we ran some errands and came home for Tessa's nap (which she did not take, of course). My mom left to go home (hopefully SHE got a nap!) and I did chores, and Tessa and I left at 4pm to go to Swedish for my Neulasta shot. Tessa charmed every nurse and staff member and certainly made me proud. :-) Then we hit rush hour traffic, stop and go, to come home. This is where it got a bit ugly, as Tessa said, "Mommy, I need medicine," and then threw up. I'm pretty sure it was carsickness as she has done that a couple times before in stop and go traffic, and once we got her home and cleaned up she was her usual, exhuberant self. PHEW. Being immune compromised, it really scared me...and of course I hate to see my baby so sad.

Soon after we got home, Ryan arrived, and we enjoyed the great dinner that Patrice made (since we ate out yesterday for our anniversary). After gobbling mine up, I left Ryan with Tessa and I went to the preschool co-op orientation meeting for parents, as Tessa starts next week.

I wasn't sure what to say about my breast cancer to the co-op group, but realized that I needed to let this crowd know. They will know soon enough (I will wear bandanas sometimes, Tessa is very open about discussing my cancer, and my eyebrows and eyelashes will go away...and then I'll miss some time when I have my oopharectomy/hysterectomy, etc...there is a long list of how these people will find out I have cancer even if I don't tell them!) and so I felt like it was better be up front. The teacher did a "getting to know you" exercise in which we had to take something from our purse or pocket that represented us...I withdrew a bookclub book to talk about my reading, but also a vial of anti-nausea pills, as an entry to explaining my illness. When they talked about childhood sickness and when to keep your kids at home, I mentioned it again....the preschool rules are clear (and fit my needs as an immuno-compromised person), but I couldn't help adding "Catching a cold could put me in the hospital. Thank you for paying special attention to the rules this year." I hate being the "difficult" one, but it is what it is.

And just for the record, my oncologist has cleared me to attend preschool - I am just under strict instructions to wash my hands regularly, and I will carry Purell in my pocket and use it a lot at preschool as an extra safeguard. I promise, I am being careful.

I am excited for preschool. I love to watch Tessa develop new skills, and relationships with other children. I enjoy talking to the other parents, and seeing what the other kids are up to developmentally. I love to watch Tessa gain confidence in the school setting, and fall in love with her teachers. And there is something fun about the return to school in fall - as much as I don't want to return to teaching, I still love school, and it's fabulous to watch my daughter fall in love with school, too. Most of all, this year, though, I think that I love the return to "normal." The end of preschool (we missed the last day) was right around my diagnosis, and the summer has been filled with so much cancer related chaos, that I am just looking forward to the normal routines of Tessa's childhood. I look forward to the day when I leave the cancer crap behind, but until then, I can live my non-doctor non-chemo days like I'm not a cancer patient, and preschool is one way to do that. I'm just another parent helping out...just another proud mama watching her child develop. That is good medicine.

Love,
Kristina